Hori Bulle: a meal ‘10,000 years in the making’

Seed breeding, German style...|

Last summer I was invited to attend a dinner at the Clif Family Winery farm in beautiful Pope Valley, which is just 10 miles east of Napa Valley and has a decidedly laid-back rural vibe. The event was billed as “a meal 10,000 years in the making.” Apparently, buying organic vegetables at the farmer’s market or even buying vegetable starts at the nursery is coming into the process rather late. It’s really all about the seeds.

The dinner was cooked by Matthew Accarrino, the chef at San Francisco’s SPQR and a proponent of seed breeding, as is the celebrated New York chef and author Dan Barber. The dinner was well attended by seed breeders from all over the country.

On a recent trip to Lake Constance, situated between Switzerland and Germany, I, too, started on the path of growing and collecting seeds. The Höri peninsula juts out into the lake and is justly famous for the Höri Bülle, a small, round red onion that is particularly sweet and mild when eaten raw. It was first bred in the 8th century and has been cultivated on this tiny peninsula ever since. The word “bülle” comes from the Old High German word for onion, “zwiebolle.”

I discovered the Höri Bülle only because I had trekked out to the area to eat at a well-known fish restaurant. I liked it so much, in fact, that I returned the next night to eat delicate lake fish and vegetables grown by the chef, including the Höri Bülle, which he used liberally in his dishes.

From the farmers who first bred the Höri Bülle in the Middle Ages and up to the present day, the growing process has remained unchanged. The finest specimens are saved for seed propagation and allowed to flower and thus produce seeds for the next cycle.

The chef gave me three bulbs to bring back, one of which I ate in a hotel room in Zurich with bread and cheese.

The remaining two are happily flowering here in Sonoma - and in a few weeks I will harvest the seeds.

Next spring I will sow them and join an unbroken chain of seed breeders going back 1,200 years to create the first Sonoma Bülle.

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